a from the Columbian Islands to Northwestern Panama. A look at the map shows the Columbian islands at the North end of the arrow and our current corner of Panama on the pointy end. In this edition of our blog, we have what you've been craving. Pirates! Crocodile attacks! Huge Spiders! read on...I've gotten a little bit better at creating blogs. Clicking on any of the pictures should show a larger version, particularly useful with the maps.
We start our tale in the Albuquerque Cays just south of where we left off in the last insta
llment. You'll see mainland Columbia well to the South, but Columbia was once much larger. When Central America got divided up, they retained these islands off the Nicaraguan coast. The Albuquerque Cays are populated only by a group of young Columbian Marines doing a tough duty playing soccer on the beach and fishermen based out of San Andres. And a few tourists in yachts. In our wanderings around the islands we came across several brightly colored lizards. The anchorage is only pleasant when the seas in the central Caribbean are mild, which is rare. We managed to time our trip to include several mild 
days and one when the ocean was perfectly flat. We did a lot of exploring in the dinghy and snorkeled around many underwater caves. We stayed until the waves started picking up and then headed South to Panama.Our passage took just under two days. We had quite a light show the first night with several lightning producing storm cells directly in our path. We detoured well out to the East to avoid having the unpleasant experience of being struck by lightning and made it to Panama intact.
After spending a few days checking into the
country, exploring the little town of Bocas del Toro and getting Pami a ticket back to Idaho, we went exploring a few of the many bays in this area with companion boats Pelican's Flight and Tempest. In the first bay, Dolphin Bay, we were set upon by pirates. Some approaching us while still underway and some waiting until we were defenseless at anchor, they came in their pirate vessels seeking booty from the gringo yachtistas. The demands made by these fierce Caribbean scoundrels were for cookies, pencils, notebooks, magazines (to cut out pictures), spare clothes and to perhaps engage in trade. A few coins in 
exchange for local bananas or avocados, both so green and hard as to be entirely useless as food. We gave up some suckers and magazines and risked photographing the rogues as they stood off in their vessel to peruse their haul.The second bay, just around the corner featured beautiful scenery and a tiny restaurant run by an Austrian couple, The Rana Azul or the blue frog. They are open on Friday night and Sunday noon. They rest of the time, the owners work on their little estate and do a bit of canvas work for additional income. The Rana Azul is a gathering spot for the various expatriates who have built homes in this area. All traffic is by boat since there are no roads. It's quite the eclectic international group.
Pami then started her trip to the states, first by water taxi to Almirante, just to the West of the wrecks shown on the map and directly under the word SWAMP. Not as bad a place as it sounds from the map description, but no garden spot either. From Almirante, she took a taxi to Changuinola (now people can't tell you you don't know chit from Changuinola) and then got a 8 hour bus ride to San Jose Costa Rica to catch a plane to Boise. Meanwhile, I spent my first bachelor week sanding and varnishing some of the boat interior that's difficult to work on when both of us are in the boat. It was hard enough to keep myself and the dog out of the varnish for a week. It's hard to explain to a blind dog that the saloon floor she used to jump up on is now outside being varnished and there's nothing there but a hole wit
h a bunch of wires and hoses. Cloe and I managed pretty well considering the circumstances.During the second week of Pami's trip, I was joined by Chris Wilson who came down to check out the pirate life and work on his Colorado tan. We went from Bocas to the Rana Azul for a pizza and introduction to the young pirates who heavily taxed Chris' high school espanol. From there we headed to the Islas Zapatillas, the slipper islands. We wondered about the strange name until we saw them on the horizon. Low and long, they look just like a pair of bedroom slippers, minus the bunny ears. We were joined by a monohull and a
trimaran and enjoyed socializing with them as well as exploring the islands and doing some snorkeling.From the Zapatillas, we headed to Ensenada Popa, renamed Toucan Bay by the resident gringo Dave, formerly from the Spokane, WA area, who gave us a tour of his place and has become a good friend. He has the dock, a caretaker's residence and his interim house done and is working on his main house on top of the hill. The holes for his footings can be seen in the photo.
Chris holds the title of most-favored-boat guest. To unseat him, you'll have to do the dishes nightly, swab the decks, be ever congenial, flexible and adventuresome and then something more. We had a great time together.
When Chris left, I had a week of exploration by myself mixed with a few boat projects before Pami returned from the states. I met her in Changuinola and we took a bus/water taxi ride home together. After unpacking and becoming reacquainted with friends and the humidity, we headed out to explore the Loma Partida or Split Hill area. It's a small island in the middle of a narrow pass between the mainland and Isla Popa. There are quite a few homes there, both Indian and Gringo as well as a small Tienda or store with an attached Gasolinera.
The gasolinera is a hoot, a gas station without a pump. It's a small wooden building built on pilings near and partially over the water. Inside are a dozen or more plastic 55 gallon drums filled with gasoline. In the middle of the room is a cradle on which a gas drum sits on it's side. The plug has been removed and the drum rotated so that the hole is up. When a customer comes in, they put a big funnel in his jug and then rotate the drum so that the gas sloshes out into the funnel. Most of the gas goes in the funnel anyway. The rest soaks into the wood floor of the wooden building. Not a no-smoking sign in sight in any language. If a boat with built in tanks comes to the dock, they fill 5 gallon buckets, carry them to the boat and siphon them in. We've braved the gasolinera twice without being blown to bits.
From Loma Partida, we were joined by South African friends Roger and Frankie aboard their boat Infinity and by their friend Brad in his dinghy who led us through the shoals to a bay named Cauchero. It's a beautiful anchorage in the not too often visited Bahia Chiriqui Bard and his wife Karen are cruising sailors who have bought land and are settling in Panama. 
They were kind enough to introduce us to many of the area's attractions and took us on a dinghy trip up one of the nearby creeks where we saw an incredible variety of tropical plants that we usually think of as growing in pots and only with lots of TLC.
At a couple of places up the creek, local Indians were working on dugour canoes, made from a single tree. The trees are cut high in the mountains and schlepped downriver without the aid of any mechanical contrivances.
The trees farther up the creek had the most amazing buttress root systems which often formed the banks of the creek.
After awhile, the creek became too log-choked for us to run our motor and we had to paddle the dinghy through the jungle.
Brad and Karen helped us transplant an orchid from a rotting log to a coconut husk we found floating in the creek. We've had one bloom so far, but orchids are temperamental, even in their native climate.
Unfortunately, poor Cloe fell in and was attacked by a crocodile before we could get her out. She lost both her hind legs but is recovering. Since she sleeps most of the time, the lack of mobility hasn't cramped her style much.(Just kidding - she has started sleeping with her front legs out and her back legs curled up.) Strange looking dog...
Back in Bocas, we recently took a trip back to Changuinola to renew our visas and do some grocery shopping since the mainland stores are much cheaper than in touristy little Bocas.
We stocked up on durable and freezable items including 10 pounds of ground pork to make sausage (the Central American versions of sausage are nothing to get excited about). Pami made about 5 pounds of breakfast sausage and 5 of Italian sausage which should keep us in spaghetti through the coming months. I helped by grinding black pepper but found the little hand crank pepper mill far too slow for the 8 tablespoons of pepper required. One of the advantages of having the tool room right next to the galley is the ready availability of power tools in the kitchen.
We went out to dinner in Bocas for my birthday at a great little restaurant run by a German lawyer and a Spanish engineer who have decided to cook instead.Now that we are stocked with groceries, we're ready to head off exploring the local area some more. We'll probably head towards the San Blas islands next month and then on to Cartagena, Columbia for Christmas.
Richard, Pam and Cloe
